Girlfriend of suspect: Police have wrong man

'I absolutely know' it's not him in Sioux Falls burglary, slaying, she says

Dec. 18, 2013

Jordan LeBeau, 20, was killed and his 47-year-old father was wounded in a shooting Dec. 2 at LeBeau's home on North Alaska Avenue in northwestern Sioux Falls. Five people are in custody. / Elisha Page / Argus Leader

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The 21-year-old Hartford man now charged with conspiring to rob Jordan LeBeau was a close friend of the homicide victim, according to the suspect’s girlfriend.

Austin Kenneth Hogan was indicted on charges of burglary and attempted robbery along with four others in a botched theft scheme that police say led to LeBeau’s death Dec. 2 at his northwest Sioux Falls home.

Hogan turned himself in on a $50,000 warrant Monday morning.

The other four involved were each charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, robbery, attempted robbery, burglary and commission of a felony with a firearm. They are Kevin James Rice and Douglas Scholten, 20, of Dell Rapids; and Trevor Kruthoff, 17, and Brian David Anderson, 18, both of Watertown.

Police have not said how Hogan is involved with the LeBeau case.

Nicole Hollaar, who lived with Hogan, said Tuesday that “I absolutely know” police have the wrong man. Hogan spoke with police twice and was released twice, Hollaar said, as he was a friend to LeBeau and knew the others in the homicide investigation.

“They said they just had follow-up questions,” Hollaar said. “They told him he was good to go.”

Hollaar said LeBeau and Hogan were both West Central High School students and had been “like best friends” for a long time. She said that she and Hogan’s friends are in disbelief about the charges against him.

On the night LeBeau was found murdered in his home at 4205 N. Alaska Ave. in Sioux Falls, Hollaar and Hogan were getting ready for a date, she said.

“He called me in to watch a video and said, ‘Oh my god, that’s Jordan’s house,’ ” she said.

Hogan had been friends with Rice and Scholten, she said, but had pulled away from them because “they were getting too crazy.”

Rice and Scholten are accused of enlisting Kruthoff and Anderson to rob LeBeau of what they were told would be $100,000. LeBeau’s father walked in on the robbery that afternoon, which police say prompted Anderson to tell Kruthoff to fire on the father and the son.

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Police found marijuana and a “significant amount” of money in the house. LeBeau’s girlfriend was a partner in an auto restoration business with him and with Rice in Dell Rapids, and she said after Rice was charged that at least some of the money would have been connected to the auto shop.

Hogan had been facing drug charges himself when the warrant was issued for his arrest last week. According to court documents, he and two other young men fled from a parked and running Subaru Impreza in Sioux Falls when a police cruiser pulled up behind it at 2:30 a.m. Nov. 25, 2012.

Hogan was arrested on suspicion of minor consumption of alcohol. A search of the car turned up a plastic container with small, round, green cakes that smelled like marijuana, police said, each wrapped in cellophane.

Testing showed that the cakes were made of an active ingredient in marijuana.

Hogan had been scheduled to go to trial near the end of the month.

He’s now scheduled to appear in court at 10:30 a.m. today on the robbery and attempted robbery counts. Kruthoff is set to appear at 11:45 a.m.